Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Alright, so welcome to our our practice today we'll do a little meditation on grounding
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and getting grounded amidst the change. I don't know about
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you, but I feel like there's something in that. The September back to school. Energy.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And I see someone else is coming in so nice. So
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): welcome. Hi, Dana, so good to see you. We're just a small group, and I'm about to guide a grounding meditation practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So perfect perfect timing.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So yeah, there's something in this like, back to school energy. Whether or not we're a student or a teacher, or have kids or anyone around us. I still feel like there's this fresh like energy for learning. But also it's a little hectic, and also the the environment, like the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): weather, is changing for many of us. If we're in the Us. The political system is definitely like in a lot of flux and intensity. So I thought a meditation on grounding to start could be helpful.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So wherever you are, maybe just shifting and finding an easeful way to be
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): yeah, that's lovely. Leaning against the back of your chair or wall.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): feeling the support of the earth.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): maybe pulling a blanket or sweater or shirt
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): around you, or letting yourself visualize something cozy, like a campfire or candle flame.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and breathing in
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): feeling the element of earth, of Prithby
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): breathing out.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): grounding and centering in that element in you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and starting with your body. So with the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): your skin.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): your bones.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the density and weight
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): of your own body.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and sometimes it can be so
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): helpful to reflect on and connect to heaviness, pressure as a positive thing.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so, if there's
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): any
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): movement or gesture or
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): kind of self touch that would feel supportive sometimes that can be like placing hands over the eyes or hands over the chest, or on one's thighs, or grasping either
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): arm
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and feeling
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): supportive weight.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): quality of prithv
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): heaviness, groundedness.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then you can stay there, or, if you would like, touch your ring, finger and thumb.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So, moving your ring, finger and thumb together. This is Prithvi Mudra
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): earth, Madra.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): allowing Prithvi Madra to support you in feelings of groundedness.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And so, wherever you are, you know, even if the day is rather busy and full, and you're moving from one thing to the next.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): tuning into the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the grounds that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's always underneath, all of us holding us up, supporting us
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and connecting
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): into the grounding
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): quality of earth of Prithvi. And you can hold this Madra for the meditation, if you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and we'll begin to do
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): grounding, Pranama, and to begin, we'll take a deep breath in
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and exhale through the mouth with a sound and a sigh.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then inhaling
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and exhale
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): with the sound and sigh.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): inhale
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): exhale
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): sounds.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and release.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and we'll start to, if it feels good and supportive to you to count our breathing.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to find a kind of groundedness and rootedness within the breath.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so that might look like breathing in for, say, 3 and out for 5, or your count might be different. We all have different lengths of breath, so yours might be in for 4 out for 6, or
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): aiming to lengthen your exhale.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and on every exhale to feel the grounding, the rooting support of the earth.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We'll practice together, inhaling
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): 2, 3,
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or exhaling 2, 3,
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): 4,
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): 5, 6,
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): inhaling
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and exhaling.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): inhale
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and exhale.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): inhale.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): exhale.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): continuing to breathe.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): perhaps letting the count go.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and releasing into a
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): supportive, grounding breath.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): not needing to control the breath, or even
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): bring awareness to it, but letting the breath breathe you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you can continue like this, or, if you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): bringing in another pranayama Bormari breath.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the sound of bees, the humming of bees, such a grounding
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): gift!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): What bees give us their sound.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and this breath that harmonizes our nervous system.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and the way it's practiced is an inhale through the nose, and an exhale with the lips closed, exhaling through the nose, but kind of a vibrating humming at the back of your throat.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and you can vibrate through your chest through your head and nasal cavity wherever you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and we'll do that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): about 8 times together.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and you can allow it to be as loud or soft as you would like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): inhaling.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and with the sounds like humming bees exhaling.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Even the sound. Go
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): your mind and body rest
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): this field of grounded stillness.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We'll rest together in silence, and in a little while I'll guide you back with my voice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you breath in
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): deep breath out
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in a world that is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): often rushing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): makes us feel like there's always more to be done.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): rest and stillness
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): being grounded and rooted
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): is truly revolutionary.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and it's not new to practice
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as old as time ancestral practice
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that all of our ancestors
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): likely
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): shared in some form.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So, knowing as you pause.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): take that sacred pause
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): as you rest.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to find grounding
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that you're reconnecting to elemental
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): qualities like Prithpi, like earth
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and that are each of our birthright in all of our
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): varied.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): unique lineages and traditions.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So, allowing yourself to just reflect.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): maybe imagine, or create
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): open to the question, How did my ancestors
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): round themselves?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): How did they feel
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): connected to the earth
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and doesn't have to be blood ancestors? Although it could be?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): This could be a inquiry with your spiritual ancestors.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): chosen family
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): wisdom teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and the answers don't have to be like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): huge and radical. It can be like, oh, yeah, they planted. They planted crops.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): they planted seeds
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): intended
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the animals in their environment.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): They gathered in circle and sang around fires
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or water.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): letting your mind. Remember.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): create
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): makeup.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We'll take some time to just reflect on how our ancestors, chosen
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or otherwise
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): rooted and grounded.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): cared for self and community.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And as you're ready. If there's any movements that feel supportive.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): perhaps a stretch in one direction, I'm lifting one arm up over my head and stretching to the side
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then the other side.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): feeling the weight, and also
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that power to move in space, that being grounded, gives us like from a solid foundation.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I can stretch up and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): expand.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then invitation to keep the focus kind of 50% in words, 50% outwards. And we'll move into writing or journaling or sharing a little about?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): How
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): do we envision self care right now? Perhaps inspired by our ancestors, chosen spiritual, imagined?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): How are we grounding and rooting, connecting to the earth, and so we'll take a few minutes just to reflect or to write. You can write in the chat, and then, if anyone would like to. We'll move into sharing, and I'll play a little music, as I often do. I find that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for me one of the ways is reflecting. My ancestors definitely like, chanted and got together and chanted and saying food was a big part of it, too. But I'm gonna play some music so we can.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I can listen.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): reflect.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I'm taking, maybe I'm
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): few moments, to finish up your writing, you can always keep writing more
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): later.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): then i'd love to invite anyone who would like to to share out loud or in the chat around
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): this very emergent theme of what is supporting us with grounding, with connecting to our rootedness to the earth.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You now your ancestors, spiritual, chosen, you know. But all all the things. What's supporting you, or what are you moving towards. Even if you feel like, maybe you're not doing the greatest job.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Cause I think that's so important, too, is like there's no
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): judgment
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): there. It's just a process.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So, opening up the space for shares out loud or in the chat.
dana wilk (she/her): Hi, I'm Dana. I
dana wilk (she/her): I feel like
dana wilk (she/her): when you're talking about practices and who
dana wilk (she/her): it was. I just felt like
dana wilk (she/her): a lot who is in my blood lineage. It feels like a lot of grief.
dana wilk (she/her): And there's this.
dana wilk (she/her): and it feels really beautiful. What's on the other side? Because I know who would have been practicing
dana wilk (she/her): embodied
dana wilk (she/her): practice and spiritually embodied practice
dana wilk (she/her): would have been
dana wilk (she/her): a long, long time ago.
dana wilk (she/her): And just how sad that feels
dana wilk (she/her): to really be
dana wilk (she/her): struggling with the emotional
dana wilk (she/her): self regulation, or things that are just like, oh, I would have been a part of community, and I just would have been helped.
dana wilk (she/her): or somebody would have a relationship with the earth. And
dana wilk (she/her): yeah, it was just it feels so far away. So I feel like what I know about healing is grief is good to attend to.
dana wilk (she/her): and I'm just really grateful for
dana wilk (she/her): people sharing lineages that don't
dana wilk (she/her): belong to my blood
dana wilk (she/her): to learn from, and just how much I owe
dana wilk (she/her): music and culture and spiritual lineages that are embodied, that
dana wilk (she/her): that belong to other people
dana wilk (she/her): in other places.
dana wilk (she/her): or to this place.
dana wilk (she/her): So yeah.
dana wilk (she/her): I thank you for opening this up, because it was really on time.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): thank you, Dana, and for bringing up the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the grief, I think about that a lot
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): with some of my immediate blood family, or, you know, like a generation or 2 back, and how they didn't really, you know, like my grandmother on my dad's side, she's an orphan. She had her 1st child when she was 13, you know, like I don't think she had a lot of opportunity to ground
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): or to rest, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so some of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the ability to just like, grieve that, and and know that. You know from epigenetics. We know that that's in us, like we carry some of those things from our ancestors.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And I also, I feel like I've been really reflecting on lately on, you know, Yoga is unity right? And it didn't come to any one person. It came through to a lot of people
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): at a particular time and place in in this valley, but
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's also it's sort of like the all of our inheritance, the ability to connect to what brings us to union.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): that has felt really
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): reassuring, you know, and really like nurturing and nourishing to me lately. Like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we all get to remember this, we all get to remember these practices together, and it's
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): shows up in different forms.
dana wilk (she/her): Wow! I love that. And it's kind of
dana wilk (she/her): blowing my mind a little bit. I'm trying to understand. I wonder if you could speak more to that, because I think what I'm stuck with.
dana wilk (she/her): what it's hard for me to bridge the gap of
dana wilk (she/her): is the shame of
dana wilk (she/her): of seeing
dana wilk (she/her): people who
dana wilk (she/her): how how much there has been appropriation in it.
dana wilk (she/her): global violence in the process.
dana wilk (she/her): Of so many cultures. And so it's hard for me to think that that belongs to everyone.
dana wilk (she/her): And also
dana wilk (she/her): and also sit with.
dana wilk (she/her): Yeah, it's I'm I'm it's hard. I I love to hear more.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah. Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm, it's like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's so much for me connected to intention. Right? Like, if we're just taking a practice cause, of course it does. It comes in with a particular cultural context and packaging Yoga, I mean, like through the Indus Valley, and you know, influenced by Hinduism and Jainism and Islam and Buddhism, and all of these things. But it's not under the purview of any one of those only, either
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): right? So Yoga doesn't belong to Hinduism or Jainism or Buddhism. It was always sort of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): a practice of people connecting to the earth and the elements, and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): even then there was no one definitive way to do that. There were many different
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): lineages for many different answers, different ways and branches of of practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): also a practice of finding freedom from suffering.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you know. So in the various ways that that was possible. And then some people were practicing for their own liberation, like really, really, specifically, and others were practicing for their own and their communities.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): all of those things like connecting to the elements connecting to the earth, finding self knowledge, finding stillness, you know, caring for one's own liberation and others. Those feel like universal truths. You know that we find in many different spiritual traditions, like from Christianity to Paganism, to Judaism, to Islam, right like all over. And so when I get to like the heart of what Yoga is like back before
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Romanical patriarchy, certainly before European colonialism, like the heart of Yoga
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for me, is that sense of connection between myself and my environment. So it's not even. It's not even connection. I just am one with my environment, and I'm 1 with myself and with everyone else. It's not like I'm there all the time, right? Like I'm in that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): experience of yoga like. I think of it as like actual yoga.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): quite rarely. But when I am there it's that reminder that that's what we're all heir to right, that feeling of connection, that that experience of oneness, and that it doesn't actually matter, you know, whether we meditated or whether we did Asana, or whether we prayed or you know, whatever the rules kind of are for our particular lineages or traditions.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): what matters is that oneness? And so I think that's what I mean, like like at the at its heart, honoring Yoga's roots
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): to me, is
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): honoring that oneness, and connecting in whatever ways are possible to that oneness. And so it doesn't
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): kind of like thich not Han, who was a Zen Buddhist monk. He he was like, yeah, I have a shaved head, and I'm a monk. But I'm am I really a monk like? What does that? You know my Buddhist like? I'm not a Buddhist right? Like the label is not so important. And so I wouldn't say this. I do want to be clear
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): out in public on Instagram, because I think you're right, Dana. There's like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so much misappropriation of Yoga that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's important to honor the roots. But then part of what it means to honor the roots is to go deeper than just like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Oh, y'all, we're doing it wrong, like, sure. Of course we could do better. We can be more honoring. But below that, underneath that once we're already caring about honoring the roots.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we all have direct access to the divine. No one gets to mediate that, you know, not because we're Indian, or because we're, you know, in a particular Yoga lineage that that's not anyone's
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): right or role to mediate for anyone else. We all have direct connection to Yoga itself Union itself. So I don't know if that's helpful. I think it's like.
dana wilk (she/her): Ew, that is.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Go ahead.
dana wilk (she/her): I interrupted. So he's asked to get.
dana wilk (she/her): Oh, no, you are continuing on.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It's like caring like as long as we're caring for the cultural elements. I think then we get to be like. And yes.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): in truth. It is ours. It's all of ours. It's all of our cultural inheritance, you know.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): one groups. It never was meant to be that it's just that we've so disconnected it from the full science of Yoga. And so yes, we connect it. Honor the roots, practice, you know, and then, like, have your own experience.
dana wilk (she/her): I I love that. And when you were 1st talking I wrote in the chat like like a confluence, because you were talking about like
dana wilk (she/her): in the industry of our valley, like there's all these, you know, these different practices that really came together to form Yoga, and different traditions that came together to form Yoga
dana wilk (she/her): and foreign. The practice and how it evolved over time is what I'm imagining. It's almost like this river.
dana wilk (she/her): And just like this beautiful natural element of like, how we do come together.
dana wilk (she/her): And
dana wilk (she/her): I think what's lacking in
dana wilk (she/her): what's lacking in what's premise? Capitalist patriarchy is essentially humility.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah, okay.
dana wilk (she/her): It is the belief that you can be superior to another human being, and that that's okay, and that you don't have to have relationship with Earth.
dana wilk (she/her): And that's okay.
dana wilk (she/her): And it's so destructive. So within.
dana wilk (she/her): without, without humility and a critical lens
dana wilk (she/her): about structural violence.
dana wilk (she/her): then it is leather might.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Right.
dana wilk (she/her): Is what I'm hearing and and like
dana wilk (she/her): right, they keep on thinking of. Like
dana wilk (she/her): all of you know, I don't come from people who I've come from people who've done a lot of harm and have done a lot of harm within recent generations without accountability. So how I look at my ancestors is more like.
dana wilk (she/her): okay, let me go way back before the doctrine of discovery.
dana wilk (she/her): and everybody else who might have been like.
dana wilk (she/her): you know, who might have been continuing to advocate and be in kind of this warrior
dana wilk (she/her): posture towards harm and structures of harm. But I know that not in recent history is that true
dana wilk (she/her): that people haven't determined to heal so so much of like who wrote this book that I love like Toni Morrison, and how important that was to me like bell hooks, like all of these thinkers, like
dana wilk (she/her): the picture of Frida Kahlo, and I think of like it makes me think, if not for like, who would be be in their economy even
dana wilk (she/her): without black women?
dana wilk (she/her): And who would we be with human rights without black women, without Harriet Tubman? Without like? We wouldn't be where we're at, and so to pretend like.
dana wilk (she/her): So for me, it's meaningful for thinking of who are my spirit ancestors, and not necessarily my blood lineage ancestors, because that's bad news bears my bad blood lineage ancestors. Just a really, it's really
dana wilk (she/her): like I'm not. When I'm praying. I'm not praying to them.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah.
dana wilk (she/her): I'm praying to the ones that have done healing, and that being be a ways out, and the intellectual and artist.
dana wilk (she/her): and like
dana wilk (she/her): people sharing their practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): yeah, I love that.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Dana. I'm feeling it. And I'm also like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Well, I'm really interested in your particular lineage in. And then also, I'm curious if you know about the work of surge showing up for racial justice or.
dana wilk (she/her): I do. Yeah, I really love it. I really love it a lot. I really love it a lot. And I think in my area.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah.
dana wilk (she/her): The way that that's been organized. There isn't a particularly nuanced understanding like when so with search, there's often aligning with other organizations.
dana wilk (she/her): And really seeking
dana wilk (she/her): that leadership. So I think that that can be complicated in my area. I know that there probably isn't a nuance to understand with tribal nations history. And so how you can just be very much like you think you're doing the right thing. But the organization is often putting themselves at odds with other tribal nations. And so it's just like I I've organized
dana wilk (she/her): at a distance, but not up close, because I don't know how to navigate like. How do you not excuse me? My language.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Totally. No, it's all good.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah. The part of the work that I'm doing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): connected to this is, you know.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I just particularly know aware, aware. La! So alliance for white anti-racist everywhere. I thought, maybe it stands for something else now. But they and some of my friends are white folks who are in it.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and they did a lot of work around like, who are the white ancestors? Right? That may not be our actual blood ancestors.
dana wilk (she/her): Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Who were, you know.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): on the Underground Railroad. We're like interrupting and standing up to patriarchy and oppression, and and how powerful that is to also have a lineage of yeah, like Quakers, right?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Like, like we get to claim those, too. When I say we aren't speaking, because you know, my mom's white. Right? So I have also. And my grandma.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): who said to my parents, like or to my mom, you should not marry this Indian man right like I love my grandma. She's amazing. She came so far and
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and so it's like I've got those those folks in my ancestry, too. And I do this is gonna go, and, you know, take it or leave it. But I actually feel like, so my grandma's passed on now. But I feel like there's aspects of her in the spirit realm that are that came to understanding and realization that she never could in life, and that my practice now actually
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): forwards and back.
dana wilk (she/her): Yeah, I feel that completely. I feel that completely, because I've had a similar experience with somebody who has passed and where I'm like, oh, they're continuing to heal as I heal. And there's that there's that concept
dana wilk (she/her): within.
dana wilk (she/her): I I understand, like in terms of the time, space continuum isn't a thing. And so my feeling helps people from before and after, like
dana wilk (she/her): future ancestors, future ancestors, and past ancestors.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah.
dana wilk (she/her): And that kind of goes back to like. It's something that belongs to all of us, because there's this reality that we operate in.
dana wilk (she/her): like. I trust, life. I don't trust white supremist capitalist patriarchy.
dana wilk (she/her): and I live in it.
dana wilk (she/her): So it's just like in living in it. How can I take the most possible care and integrity within my practice, and as I share it.
dana wilk (she/her): so that I can really be clear and
dana wilk (she/her): speak what is true
dana wilk (she/her): as a way of healing, and then within my own practice. It's something that belongs to me as a human.
dana wilk (she/her): That I share
dana wilk (she/her): like anything that's embodied, and feeling is maybe what I can.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hmm.
dana wilk (she/her): To hear what you're saying like it is something that does belong to all of us.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah. And also again, you know, take or leave this part, but from many different Yoga
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): lineage, perspectives. Reincarnation means we've all lived in many different shapes. And
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): so, you know, getting stuck on saying, like Yoga has to be in the Indian package, it it really ultimately undermines that that essence of like.
dana wilk (she/her): Wow!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I know we've all been in all these different packages, and what's the essence like honor, the culture, honor, the depth, honor, the nuance. But
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the package that it comes in is actually some of the least relevant, you know.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): while honouring the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's almost like the
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the expanse. You know the the spiritual expanse or the cultural context.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So yeah, it's like a both hands. And this is where it gets to me, really nuanced, really complex, like, how do we take accountability and response.
dana wilk (she/her): Early.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): How do we care
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and innovate? You know there's not like a simple answer for those things.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): How do we bring Yoga into like our classrooms, you know, and our stressful like power
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): school dynamics. I would just watched something by thinker
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): who was talking about how, as a as a therapist. She's like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): we're essentially cops, you know, like we're regulating, we're controlling. So I'm like, Wow, if you think of yoga teachers like, is there a way that we're part of a system that's creating compliance versus innovation, you know. And so it's not simple. And it's the same with cultural appropriation and care if it was, we would have a rule book, but we don't, you know. So we're just like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I think there's a beauty, and like tussling with it and and exploring it.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah.
dana wilk (she/her): Yay!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Thank you. Dana.
dana wilk (she/her): Thank you. Thank you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Do you have something?
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah and welcome. I thought, I just wanna say, welcome to someone. You joined us. We're reflecting on grounding practices, and we've kind of
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): ventured into talking about how we honor the roots of Yoga in various ways.
Justine (she/her): I guess I'm kind of linking on to what
Justine (she/her): Dana was saying about the capitalism in this culture and everything. And
Justine (she/her): I watched a presentation where neurodivergent, like neurodivergence or neurodiversity, and the word, the history of the word normal actually
Justine (she/her): started.
Justine (she/her): And and this is also with education, system, with data. Everything's about data.
Justine (she/her): the word normal began during the industrial res revolution. Talk about people being normal and
Justine (she/her): labeling people as normal. And the history of normal. So all these standards were created
Justine (she/her): throughout. And so
Justine (she/her): I'm not. I'm not doing this presentation justice by summarizing it in my own way. But the thing that hit me was that
Justine (she/her): so it all started with the industrial revolution about
Justine (she/her): normalcy. And having all these standards and different systems systems of normal like this is education system. This is
Justine (she/her): name any system we have right now here, and
Justine (she/her): how
Justine (she/her): it
Justine (she/her): it's actually not normal or not natural, because it doesn't take into account the seasons it doesn't take into account humanity or human bodies. And
Justine (she/her): so
Justine (she/her): that this it, we've actually done a create a lot of harm. And we probably created all these mental health issues from
Justine (she/her): this.
Justine (she/her): I don't know the standpoint, but i i i also want to go back to collective care, too, because
Justine (she/her): I feel because of the cultures like I feel like there's not.
Justine (she/her): People don't know what community is. They don't understand it. They don't know how to create it sometimes
Justine (she/her): in these systems that we work in
Justine (she/her): or live in, but definitely in the systems that we work in because it's all about productivity and having.
Justine (she/her): If you see what I'm doing here, it's like it's a non stop thing. And so
Justine (she/her): I feel that
Justine (she/her): there is a lot of grief. There is grief because we are missing something because it's been missing for a very long time. And
Justine (she/her): another thing, and I don't know if it's the same presentation or a different one. Talking about native American principles and values.
Justine (she/her): how
Justine (she/her): that was the
Justine (she/her): it through. That was the way to create healthy systems. Because
Justine (she/her): ways
Justine (she/her): certain
Justine (she/her): people were.
Justine (she/her): I'm actually going off. I'm I'm gonna stop because my brain's actually going on tangents right now. So anyway.
Justine (she/her): I just have to say.
Justine (she/her): I really appreciate this and this
Justine (she/her): and that's it. I'm gonna stop and unmute myself.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Thank you. Testing. Yeah, I I really was connecting. And I got what you were talking about, at least my understanding of it. And I'm connecting it with like mechanization and industrialization. And the way that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): for that to function, we all just have to do like one job right and fit like a cog in a machine. But that's not nature. There's so much diversity, and there's so much difference. And you know, and actually, things work perhaps less efficiently but better overall in terms of flourishing ecosystems when we create things, structures built on that
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): biodiversity rather than like normalcy and sameness. So I'm I'm really resonating.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): thank you.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And, Caroline, did you want to share anything out loud or in the chat.
Caroline (they/she): Just to say thank you for the conversation. Really, it's been much deeper. And say, I really appreciate just being here and being present with everything that's being said.
Caroline (they/she): yeah, I'm I'm also just very tired. So
Caroline (they/she): I'm just gonna just let it be
Caroline (they/she): But I appreciated
Caroline (they/she): I guess one thing I'd like to share is like I appreciate the prompts and
Caroline (they/she): The things that came up within my kind of blood. Ancestral line was the connection to gardening and growing, growing.
Caroline (they/she): cultivating, you know very much and tending to land clearing land.
Caroline (they/she): And when, Susanna, you talked about how your family chanted, or, you know, like whether you said your family. But you know in your ancestral lines chanting, and I
Caroline (they/she): and I thought about
Caroline (they/she): the suddenness of not having that, because
Caroline (they/she): for me, Montreux is such a alone activity. But it's so powerful when you do it together in community like, unless I'm sharing it, but that that everybody doing it together, everybody equal, because everybody's loving it and stuff. But then I remembered that actually, you know, with my dad's from Welsh family like we sang like we sang all the time.
Caroline (they/she): You know, the Welsh are known for singing everywhere.
Caroline (they/she): you know. So actually, we did. Just thanks. You know, that is what my kids. So
Caroline (they/she): so yeah.
Caroline (they/she): thank you for that journey of
Caroline (they/she): exploration. And.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Absolutely. And thank you and wishing you lots of rest.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Yeah. And I love
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): just united in relationship to South ecosystems, environment, people, creatures, great and small. I love the the like.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): It's like both, and right, like grieving and acknowledging, and you know and it can be little things like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): I had a conversation with a friend who was like the hummingbirds in my backyard are helping me be grounded. I'm like right. I have hummingbirds in my backyard, you know, like these little things that that we can just by shifting and bringing awareness to. That's a practical practice, you know. And so it it then nourishes us.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And then Justine added, adding, in older generations who play practice, played quilting card games, singing, taking time for these activities to happen, bees, too, and watching a squirrel steal food from the bird feeder. Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): So I want to invite us as we close. I think we'll close with a chance. Just with that inspiration. Caroline, that was really beautiful. And but also to like, maybe there's just one simple thing
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): you can take with you and for me while we were practicing. And I think during the meditation, or just after I had the vision of me just laying on the earth, you know. So like I'm gonna go and lay on the earth after this
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): simple practice, and we will chant I probably do this one
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): all the time now, but I feel like
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): it's never
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): not a good time to chant for peace one of the Shanti mantras in ourselves.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We'll chant once for ourselves once for maybe a particular person or being or community, and then the 3rd time, for all beings well wishes, wishing for peace, for freedom, for freedom from suffering, and for everlasting joy.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): And it's loca semasta suki. No bavan, too.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): We'll start and end with Om.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You can find an useful way to be and breathe in fully
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): exhaling out all the air.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): and then inhale to chant.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Oh.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hello, kaha!
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Summer stuff.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): suki! No
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): pavan to
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Hello! Kaha summer
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): suki! No.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): the 1, 2.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Oh, God.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): semester
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): suki! No, Pavan, do.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Oh.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): thank you so much for your presence. Thank you for your practice.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): You can unmute and say goodbye, and thanks to each of you. This was really beautiful, really deep and very special.
Susanna Barkataki (she/her): Thank you.
Caroline (they/she): Thank you so much.
dana wilk (she/her): You.
dana wilk (she/her): Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
dana wilk (she/her): Yeah, it's really special. Thank you. Very much needed.
dana wilk (she/her): Alright.